Targeting the heparan sulfate-binding site of RAGE with monoclonal antibodies

Heparan sulfate (HS) plays its biological functions by interacting with hundreds of secreted extracellular and transmembrane proteins. Interaction with HS has been shown to be required for the normal function of many HS-binding proteins. Receptor for advanced glycation end-product (RAGE) is such a protein, whose activation requires HS-induced oligomerization. Using RAGE as an exemplary protein, we show here the workflow of a simple method of developing and characterizing mAbs that targets the HS-binding site. We found that HS-binding site of RAGE is quite immunogenic as 18 out of 94 anti-RAGE mAbs target various epitopes within the HS-binding site. Sequence analysis found that a common feature of anti-HS-binding site mAbs is the presence of abundant acidic residues (range between 6 to 11) in the complementarity determining region, suggesting electrostatic interaction plays an important role in promoting antigen-antibody interaction. Interestingly, mAbs targeting different epitopes within the HS-binding site blocks HS-RAGE interaction to different degrees, and the inhibitory effect is highly consistent among mAbs that target the same epitope. Functional assay revealed that anti-HS-binding site mAbs show different potency in inhibiting osteoclastogenesis, and the inhibitory potency does not have a simple correlation with the affinity and the epitope. Our study demonstrates that developing HS-binding site targeting mAbs should be applicable to most HS-binding proteins. By targeting this unique functional site, these mAbs might find therapeutic applications in treating various human diseases.